EE Times corrects story on silane as a potential superconductor

(Editor's note: A March 17 story about new research on the potential superconducting properties of the material silane contained numerous errors. They are corrected below.)

A Canadian-German research team has reported what they say is the first evidence that superconductivity can occur in a common gaseous hydrogen compound -- silane -- when compressed to a solid at very high pressure.

The finding, first published in the journal Science, promises to advance the design of more efficient superconducting materials that could be used for a variety of applications, the researchers said.

"Our research in this area is aimed at improving the critical temperature for superconductivity so that new superconductors can be operated at higher temperatures," said John Tse, Canada Research Chair in Materials Science at the University of Saskatchewan.

The new family of superconductors is based on a hydrogen-containing compound called silane, the silicon analog of methane. Silane combines a single silicon atom with four hydrogen atoms to form a molecular hydride. (Methane combines a single carbon atom with four hydrogen atoms.)

Researchers have long speculated that hydrogen under enough pressure would superconduct, but have so far been unable to achieve the necessary conditions since hydrogen is difficult to compress to the density required for superconductivity. The Canadian and German researchers attributed their success to using a hydrogen-rich compound with silicon that reduced the amount of compression needed to achieve superconductivity.

In separate research, Tse's team is using the Canadian Light Source synchrotron to characterize the high-pressure structures of other hydrides as potential superconducting materials for industrial applications as well as a storage mechanism for hydrogen fuel cells.

Perhaps you have corrected the article, but you still need to correct the title. The abstract of the paper in Science states that the compressed silane became superconducting below 17 Kelvin, which is -256 C or -429 F.

Obviously, this is a very early stage research result, but it's not that difficult to make a practical superconducting material out of it - it's mainly a materials-engineering issue. It's not necessary to use a diamond anvil to get the high pressures necessary - it may be possible to use a material that can adsorb SiH4 instead - maybe a metal or metal-hydroxide that can trap SiH4 in a crystalline lattice and retain it at enormous pressure from molecular-scale forces alone (if you think about it, that's how previous High-Tc perovksite materials actually work). It's a non-trivial engineering challenge, but well within reach over a decade for any reasonable materials lab in the industry.

"Max Plank Institute?" For shame. Of all the people in the world, you ought to know how to spell the name of one of the great physicists of the 20th century, whose name graces the basic equations of quantum mechanics. And not just once, but you misspelled it twice. WTF kind of journalism is this? One wonders if your fact-checking is as shoddy as your knowledge of physics history.

THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS !!!!!
thats what I think...
although commercial applications could take some time and engineering, a new area of superconductor research directed towards a whole new horizon of applications is a possibility which is more than near with this break through !!